PLASTIC BAG DEBATE ISN’T CUT AND DRIED

The idea that plastic bags given out by retailers are terrible for the environment is pushed as an obvious truth by green activists.

But the issue is more complicated than these advocates let on. As a bill by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, to establish a statewide ban that would supersede local ordinances advances through the Legislature, we hope that the issue gets a full review — not a show trial.

Bag critics say bags are a huge litter problem on land and sea and take up big portions of landfills.

They also warn of the dangers the bags pose to wildlife.

But a 2009 state study found plastic bags make up a tiny 0.3 percent of California’s waste stream. Meanwhile, the water and energy costs involved in producing paper bags don’t make them a particularly attractive substitute. And two academic studies found significant health dangers from another substitute — reusable cloth bags — because of E. coli bacteria from meat juices in bags that are rarely washed.

These studies were reflexively attacked by foes of plastic bags, but they weren’t discredited. Before Padilla’s ban is approved, questions raised by the studies and other legitimate issues need to be seriously considered by the Legislature.